Refrigerating apparatus



A ril 26, 1938. s. M; SCHWELLER ,1

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed April 27, 1935 ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 26,1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATI NG APPARATUS Sylvester M.Schweller, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton,Ohio, a corporation of Delaware x -Application April 27, 1935, SerialNo.*18,686

1 Claim. (01. 211- g m This invention relates to refrigerating apparaingdrawing, wherein a preferred form of the tus and more particularly to anovel cabinet construction whereby an article supporting shelf may bepositioned in the cabinet at a plurality of levels therein in order toprovide vertical adjustment therefor.

Heretofore, in providing refrigerator cabinets with means forpositioning one or more shelves therein at different levels in order topermit the user to adjust the shelf spacing to suit his particularneeds, it has been customary to provide a.

plurality of sets of shelf supports on the inner wall of therefrigerator cabinet for each shelf in such a manner that a shelf may bepositioned to cooperate with any one of the set of supports. 1

It is also desirable in refrigerator cabinets for household use to avoidtheuse'of shelf supporting devices which create corners or pockets whichare diflicult to cleanin order to facilitate the maintenance of thecabinet in a sanitary condition. For this reason, it has been common toform slight depressions or protuberances in the inner wall of thecabinet itself for shelf supports. In a cabinet where each of theshelves is adjustable, and the shelf supports are formed in the innerwall, the number of protuberances or depressions is somewhat excessive,making the cost of manufacture of the cabinet high as well as increasingthe'labor of cleaning the refrigerator.

In order to obviate these difllculties, the present invention provides arefrigerator cabinet having an adjustable shelf adapted to coact withbut a single set of shelf supports whereby-at least one supportingportion of the shelf maybemounted in the cabinet in any of a pluralityof vertically spaced positions.

It is a further object to' provide a shelf for a refrigerator cabinetadapted to support a sliding tray beneath a cooling element at differentdistances therefrom whereby the tray may be supported in close proximityto the cooling element at such times as it is desired to collect 'waterdripping therefrom, for. example, when the cooling element isdefrosting, or at times when it is desired to store tall articles on.the nextlower shelf; and to support said tray or other articles at agreater distance below the cooling element at other times when it isdesirable to provide space for large articles to be stored immediatelybelow the cooling element for maintaining them at a lower temperaturethan prevails in other portions of the cabinet. Further'obiects andadvantages of the present invention will be apparent from the followingdescription, reference being had to the accompanypresent invention isclearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator cabinet embodying the presentinvention and showing the 5 shelf in one position;

Fig. 2 is a view corresponding to Fig. 1 showing the shelf in anotherposition; and

Fig. 3 is a top view of the shelf when in the position shown in Fig. 2.

Referring now to Fig. 1, there is illustrated a refrigerator cabinet i0having a food compartment I2. In the food compartment I 2, there ismounted a cooling element l4 adjacent the top vwall of the compartmentI2 for maintaining a 15 circulation of cooled air within the compartmentl8 illustrated in Fig. 3 is adapted to be supported upon the shelfsupports IS in either of two positions whereby an article supportingportion thereof may be positioned in the cabinet at either of twolevels. The shelf i8 is formed with a wirelike edge or boundary member20 of generally rectangular outline when viewed from the top.,

The boundary member. 20 is provided with a vertically offset portion 22formed and disposed to lie immediately below the cooling element ll.

'The offset portions 22 of the boundarysmember 18 are connected by aplurality of cross rails 24 extending from the front to the back of theshelf land which extend vertically slightly beyond the plane of theoifset portion 22. A third cross rail '26 is provided at one side of theoif-set'portions 22 to form one boundary member of a wovenwire grid 28which is secured to the cross rail 26 and to the boundary member 20 atthe right of the 1 offset portions 22. Two or more cross rails areprovided connecting the offset portions 22.to form an article supportingportion whereby a drip aray 32 or other article may be supported inoffset 60 relation to the plane of the grid 28. Preferably, I the rails24, 26 and 30 form guides for sliding the tray 32 into and out ofposition beneath the cool-' ing unit M. The longitudinally extendingside portions 34 of the boundary member '20. provide a Conplurality ofsupport engaging portions on the shelf whereby the shelf may be mountedupon the support l6 either in the position illustrated in Fig. 1 or inthe position illustrated in Fig. 2. Thus, considering the shelf aspositioned in Fig. 1, the bottom surface of the members 34 provides oneset of shelf support engaging portions whereby the shelf may besupported on support IS with the article supporting portion 30 disposedabove the support Hi. The top surface of the members 34 as viewed inFig. 1 provides a second set of support engaging portions on the shelfwhereby the same may be supported on the support l6 with the articlesupporting portion 30 disposed below the support 16 as illustrated inFig. 2.

It will, therefore, be seen that the present invention provides acabinet construction whereby an article supporting portion of the shelfmay be positioned in either of two vertically spaced planes whilesupported upon the same set of shelf supports.

While the form of embodiment of the present invention as hereindisclosed constitutes a. preferred form, it is to be understood thatother forms might be adpoted, all coming within the scope of the claimwhich follows. What is claimed is as follows:

In a refrigerating apparatus comprising, a cabinet having a food storagecompartment formed therein, a set of shelf supports associated with thewalls of said compartment, a shelf adapted to coact with said supportsand having on opposite sides thereof .a support engaging means, thesupport engaging means on one side of said shelf being in the samehorizontal plane shelf.

SYLVESTER M. SCHW'ELLER.

